*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Strategists evolve, shaped by the times they live in, prisoners of the problems of the day. And so, just as warfare constantly changes, so must strategists. So what will mold future strategists?
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Why do bad things happen to good people? Everyone asks this question at some point. Parisian or Paris-Texan. Mennonite, Muslim, or Morman. The 1% and the 99%. This question comes for us all, regardless of place, piety, or privilege. And…
Image courtesy of War on the Rocks. Frank Hoffman and I are in raging, intense agreement – for the most part. I wrote a short essay this past week describing my thoughts on a “Strategist’s Mission Statement.” This was a return to first principles – what is a strategist and what does one actually do? For example, if military…
Image courtesy of NATO. Regular readers will know that just before the holidays (late November), I wrote a two page document that intended to form the basis for a rapid and simple introduction to the study of strategy. I “chunked” each term into 6 word definitions and generated 50 terms – in sum, a 300…
Image of Rodin’s Thinker courtesy of Wikipedia. Strategic thought. Insight? Context? Perspective? Pick up any copy of the Harvard Business Review and you’ll get a definition (or six thousand) for strategic thought (that’ll be $9.95 + tax, thank you very much). But our audience is more interested in the strategy of Ancient Greek origin – where the mergers & acquisitions…
Image courtesy of The New York Times (Credit: Ruth Fremason). Note: We’re revisiting some of our most popular material from the past 10 months for our newer readers; this was originally posted June 9, 2014. Enjoy! Though this may seem gratuitous, as I’ve already done this once before (and responded to critics), I had more questions to…
West Point cadets departing for a two month-long trip to study European Great War battlefields in the summer of 1919. Note: We’re revisiting some of our most popular material from the past 10 months for our newer readers; this was originally posted June 4, 2014. Enjoy! My last essay – on a representative list of…
Image courtesy of Flikr user United States Marine Corps. Note: We’re revisiting some of our most popular material from the past 10 months for our newer readers; this was originally posted May 30, 2014. Enjoy! At West Point, we often address cadets as “scholar warriors” or “warrior scholars.” This phrasing suggests that our objective is…
My essay in the July-August 2014 edition of Military Review: “On Strategic Understanding: Teaching Strategy from the Ground Up.” Available via image below, at the Military Review site, and via PDF here.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia. One of the most important parts of being a strategist is understanding the environment. To have a grasp on the zeitgeist sharpens analysis and focuses the mind on what “is” and what might come. My contribution to this is the assessment that the contemporary warfighting environment is dominated by what…